Please Help Rebuild The Silent Barn

The Silent Barn has been an integral part of NYC’s DIY community since 2004. Last weekend, the space was ransacked and trashed, forcing its closure. As heartbreaking as this was, it has brought the community together to rebuild The Silent Barn and create a safer and more permanent home for independent art, music and gaming. More than half of the $40,000 necessary to replace equipment and make critical improvements to the space has already been raised, but every dollar you can spare is still needed. There are plenty of volunteer opportunities as well (e-mail silentbarn@gmail.com if you’d like to be involved). For more information and to donate through Kickstarter, click here.

A recent and massive theft has put the Silent Barn in a position to temporarily close operations, and we are viewing this as an opportunity to begin our transition into a viably permanent, resilient, and safe part of New York City. After several years of a rotating cast of operators, including Skeletons, Todd P, John Chavez, and Andy Borsz, The Silent Barn has settled into permanent marriage to G. Lucas Crane (Woods, Nonhorse), Joe Ahearn (ART on AIR, Showpaper), Kunal (Loud Objects, Babycastles), and Nat Roe (WFMU). We are working to co-sign a new 5-year lease for Silent Barn, officially making this a long standing piece of New York City.

The Silent Barn is an immersion into the art of New York City as it lives. It’s a double-floor music venue inside of a kitchen, an independent video games arcade, an art theater & performance space, a party surveillance system, a zine library, a museum of gigantic murals, and a home for Castle Oscar and Mama cat. Founded in 2004, The Silent Barn is now grandfather to a beautiful re-emergence of similar spaces across Brooklyn, and a quintessential model for all-ages DIY art and music culture in America. It resides proudly alongside Flux Factory and the Museum of the Moving Image as a rare contemporary art institution in Queens, New York. It has long been the headquarters of both Showpaper and Babycastles, young and booming art institutions in NYC. It has helped to birth the careers of The Dirty Projectors, Dan Deacon, Future Islands, Deerhunter, Teengirl Fantasy, Vivian Girls, Real Estate, The Black Lips, Pictureplane, Woods and many, many others.

We are now raising up to $80,000 in order to ensure the viability of The Silent Barn as a permanent all-ages venue for independent and experimental music, games, and art. We have estimates on renovations for electricity, fire safety, and security that will bring the building up legal fire-code; estimates on an excellent new sound system for both floors; and estimates on the roof reconstruction required to resume outdoor performances and urban gardening. With a little extra help, we will also revive dear projects such as Babycastles, Party Lab, the Ditko Zine Library.

This money is being raised via this Kickstarter fundraiser, but also by benefit shows around the entire country, special cassette tape releases by local music labels, and an incredible worldwide show of support that we feel incredibly lucky to witness and be a part of. We can’t keep up with the emails. Over the next few days, we will keep you all posted here about the frenzy of activity all working to rebuild the Silent Barn, and how to be a part of it in every city.

The Silent Barn is now closed. Construction projects would begin as soon as August, and last up until November 2011.